Thursday

At the season-opening Hillsdale Invitational earlier this month, Mapleton wrestling coach Ray Kowatch shouted instructions to one of his grapplers from the coach's chair.

Instinctively, Black River coach Corey Kline stopped coaching his wrestler to turn and look at the first-year Mountie coach, ready to take those instructions before realizing that Kowatch wasn't yelling at him.

Kline's reaction was more of a force of habit than anything. The Pirate coach spent five years as a collegiate wrestler at Ashland University wrestling for Kowatch, who coached at the Division II school last season, starting as head coach at AU in 1993-94.

"What caught my attention initially was hearing him yell and then realizing, 'Oh, I don't have to worry about it. It's not me this time. It's somebody else,' " Kline said. "But it was really strange because I've heard that voice quite a bit."

The two laughed off the incident because it demonstrated the tight, personal relationship the tandem has formed over the years.

Kline was Kowatch's first national champion at AU and is one of two four-time All-Americans in AU's wrestling history.

"I think we have and still have a very special relationship," Kowatch said. "I can't help but smile when I see him. I just love him to death."

Last spring, Kowatch began to get the opportunity he said he had been wanting -- the chance to get back into high school wrestling. And when the opportunity came at Mapleton, Kowatch jumped at it.

Moving back into high school after nearly a two-decade absence, Kowatch coached against his former star for the first time at the Hillsdale Invite on Dec. 6.

The two coaches had grapplers face each other in three matches at the meet, according to Kline, with Kowatch winning two of the three head-to-heads.

At the end of the day-long invite, Black River won the team title by a half a point, but one of its biggest fans came from someone outside the program.

"I felt a real sense of pride, especially in Corey's team," Kowatch said as he watched Black River win. "I'd be naive if I told you that I wasn't rooting for them."

Saturday, both Kline's Black River program and Kowatch's Mapleton program will be hosting events, each of which are set to begin 10 a.m.

The Pirates annual JB Firestone Invitational -- recognized as one of the top local grappling events -- will take place at the Black River Educational Center and include additional local teams Hillsdale and South Central. The Mounties, meanwhile, will host their first event since the program returned to the mats this winter, possibly welcoming both Norwayne and Sandy Valley for duals in the Mapleton Wendy's Christmas Classic.

Kowatch and Kline have been pulling for each other for years since Kowatch recruited the two-time state champion from Mapleton to AU.

In his freshman season, Kline became Kowatch's first national champion, winning a title at 134 pounds. Kline won his title in March 1996 and two months later Kowatch's wife, Sandy, gave birth to their son.

During most of the pregnancy, the doctors were unable to tell the Kowatchs the gender of their baby, so Ray and Sandy prepared for their newborn by picking out girls names.

A couple weeks before the due date, Sandy told her husband the family needed to come up with some boys names just to be prepared.

Despite Kowatch being Ray Kowatch III, he didn't want his son to be Ray Kowatch IV.

"So my wife said, 'You just had a great run with (Corey Kline). What about Corey if it's a boy?' " Kowatch recalled. "I thought that was pretty good."

That May, the Kowatchs welcomed their son, Corey, to their family.

"It surprises you that the guy actually thinks enough of you to name his own son after you," Kline said. "It's like, 'Oh man. I hope I don't do anything to disappoint him now because he is going to look at his son and think of me.' "

Now, 12 years later, Corey Kowatch is following his father and Kline onto the mats. He is in his second year of wrestling for Mapleton Middle School. Corey Kowatch wrestled last season at 74 pounds and is up to 95 pounds this year, according to Ray.

"It was funny because they even look an awful lot alike," Ray Kowatch said. "They are the same build -- tall and lengthy kids."

The 32-year-old Kline is in his eighth year of coaching at Black River and his sixth year as the program's head coach, but many wondered if the Mapleton alumnus would leave for his former school last year when Mapleton announced it was bringing back wrestling after a six-year absence.

"Community members would come up to me and say, 'Hey, we heard a rumor that you were thinking about going back to Mapleton,' " Kline recalled. "The thought crosses your mind, but the community, the wrestling community and the district at Black River has been nothing but good to me."

Kline admits he has integrated a lot of Kowatch's coaching methods, including letting the kids choose their form of conditioning that makes the wrestlers themselves be responsible for being in shape.

"It's, 'How hard do you guys want to work today?' " Kline said.

Now that Kowatch is back into high school wrestling, he is able to watch his former star with his wrestlers.

"He is a very good coach and sometimes you think his kids will have a tendency to wrestle the same way he did," Kowatch said. "I love seeing his kids do things that Corey would never attempt."

Even though the season has just begun, Black River and Mapleton will not see each other the rest of the regular season. However, the two will continue to feed off each other whenever they can, and with Kowatch back in high school they'll continue to remain close.

They have to. They both have a Corey in the family.

"I think the world of Corey Kline," Kowatch said. "If my son grows up to be half the man he is, I'll be a pretty proud father."